Over the last few decades, there have been changes to how the Cherokee County Board of Commissioners works from time to time. A second monthly meeting was added; first being held in the morning, then moving to night like the first meeting. Two members were added to make it a five-member board. Commissioners have also served as both the Department of Social Services Board of Directors and Planning Commission.
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But the idea initiated by newly appointed board Chair Dan Eichenbaum at the Jan. 6 meeting, and unanimously approved by commissioners, has the most potential to result in positive actions.
For years, commissioners have met at 6:30 p.m. on the first and third Mondays of every month at the Cherokee County Courthouse in downtown Murphy. The new plan would keep one formal business meeting on the third Monday of each month.
Under the plan, however, on the first Monday an informal “chairman’s forum” meeting will be held at 7 p.m. in one of the county’s five districts. Eichenbaum and the commissioner for that district will appear, along with county staff, to listen to concerns and answer questions from the public. No business will be conducted at these meetings.
Here is the chairman’s forum schedule for the year of Eichenbaum’s term, with the first two meetings focusing on the newest two commissioners:
- March 3 – Hiwassee Dam (District 5) – Alan Bryant.
- April 7 – Marble (District 2) – Mark Stiles.
- May 5 – Texana (District 3) – Ben Adams.
- June 2 – Bellview (District 4) – Eichenbaum.
- July 7 – Andrews (District 1) – Cal Stiles.
- Aug. 4 – Unaka (District 5) – Bryant.
- Sept. 8 – Peachtree (District 2) – Mark Stiles.
- Oct. 6 – Martins Creek (District 3) – Adams.
- Nov. 3 – Ranger (District 4) – Eichenbaum.
Another one of the changes Eichenbaum laid down is board members will no longer be permitted to “shoot from the hip” during meetings, change when the board will meet and vote on non-agenda items, among other things. The chair said he will also:
- Enforce decorum at meetings and won’t allow discussion from the audience, except during public forums or if an individual or group has an item on the agenda. The public attends as observers, Eichenbaum said; it will be interesting to see if the public agrees.
- Won’t allow side discussions to take place in the audience.
In addition, Eichenbaum disbanded a Joint Education Committee that never met and instead will hold private meetings between two commissioners, two school board members and staff to work out priorities behind closed doors before bringing them before their respective boards in public.
Adams also got in on the act, calling for the board to study data collected by each of the county’s departments to detect trends so the county can be more proactive. He said the board has been working on autopilot, not leadership, and effective leadership requires credibility and vision. He’s right.
All of these moves seem needed at this time. Here are a few reasons:
- Getting commissioners out in the community every month, where more productive conversations can be held among smaller groups of people, would help stop preconceived notions from forming root.
- Enforcing meeting decorum will be a lot easier if the public knows they have a chance to talk directly with a commissioner at another time. Some of the behavior in past meetings cast a negative cloud over the county that still hasn’t completely gone away.
- Becoming more proactive is an absolute must in a higher-tech world that appears to be changing not just annually, monthly, weekly or daily, but even hourly.
There are some possible red flags:
- Under the new format, commissioners won’t be present to hear constituents’ feedback from outside their districts. While it’s important for commissioners to hear from constituents in their district, of course, all commissioners are elected county-wide and vote on county-wide issues.
- Eichenbaum’s tight controls over agendas, discussions and meetings run the risk of impeding transparency, which could put the board at odds with state open meeting laws. The truth will be told when we see how many issues come to a vote of the board with unanimous decisions after little or no discussion by board members and no feedback allowed from the public.
Still, let’s give these ideas a chance and see what develops. We’re happy to see commissioners more engaged with the public before they vote on consequential things like rebuilding Cherokee County Schools.
– Publisher David Brown